My Martha Shakespeare Saga

If you read my Genealogy Envy post , you know that I am always complaining that my family is boring. Yesterday, I thought the genealogy gods had smiled on me and given me a breakthrough. It turns out that would not be the case, but I thought I would share my adventure.

On Saturday, November 19th, I attended a meeting at the Central Maryland Chapter of AAHGS. Angela Walton-Raji , gave a very informative presentation on the Best Internet Resources for African American Genealogy Research. After leaving the meeting I was inspired to visit some of the sites she mentioned. I have not been working on my family history for the past two years, because I have been doing research for a book I am writing on Union High School in Caroline County, Virginia.

I decided to search FamilySearch.org for my 3rd great grandfather, Sancho Shakespeare. I had searched the website in the past but had not found much information. To my surprise I found an entry in the Ohio Death records for Martha Lewis who died in 1914. She was born in Virginia and her father was Sancho Shakespeare and her mother was Lucinda. I got excited because there was a link to view the death certificate for FREE. With the exception of her mother’s last name, all of the information was what I expected. Unfortunately, the death certificate did not have an informant.

After a few years I found her marriage license by accident when I was searching the Central Rappahannock Heritage database for my great 3rd great grandfather, Sancho Shakespeare. She married Arthur Lewis. This was her second marriage because she is listed as a widow and her name is Martha Hart. I found Arthur and Martha Lewis in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census in Washington, DC that I thought were them, but could not find anything else. So I stopped looking.

Arthur Lewis and Martha Hart Marriage Certificate

My new find on FamilySearch.org let me know that Martha and Arthur had moved to Ohio. I started searching the census in Ohio and found her and her husband in the 1910 Hamilton County Cincinnati Ohio census living in the household of John W. Merritt. John’s wife was Ella Merritt. Martha was listed as John’s sister-in law and her husband was listed as John’s brother in law. Since John’s wife was born in Virginia and Arthur was born in Virginia, I guessed that Arthur was Ella’s brother.

Arthur continued to live with the Merritts in the 1920 census. However, in the 1930 census he was a boarder in the household of Gertrude Anderson. I wondered what happened to the Merritts. Further research in FamilySearch.org showed that Arthur Lewis died in 1935 in Cincinnati OH. I retrieved his death certificate and saw the informant was Ella Merritt who was living in Chicago Illinois. That solved the mystery of what happened to the Merritts.

Arthur Lewis Death Certificate

I looked for the Merritts in the Chicago, Illinois and found them in the 1930 census. John and Ella were living in Cook County Chicago Illinois. Their adult children: William, Arthur D. and Lenora were living with them.

I continued to search for the Merritt’s in Illinois. Ella died in 1945. Her son, Arthur died in 1969. The social security death index in Ancestry.com had a link from the record to the Cook County, Illinois website which has a lot of their vital records online. Each record can be accessed for $15 plus a $1.75 fee. I didn’t want to spend $30+, so I took a gamble and purchased Arthur’s death certificate since he died more recently. I was hoping I could use the informant on the death certificate to locate a living descendant. I paid the fee and retrieved his death certificate. Much to my chagrin, the informant was the Admitting Clerk at Mercer Medical Center. I WASTED my hard earned $16.75.

Arthur Merritt Death Certificate

Arthur and Martha did not have any children that I could tell. (The census says Martha has one living child, but he/she is never living with them.) I was hoping to trace the Merritts to a living descendant and find out more about my Shakespeare ancestors. But that trail ran cold because all of their children never married, never had any children, and lived with their parents forever!!!!!

So now I am stuck again!!!!! My genealogy luck stinks. :(

But on a positive note, I did learn that FamilySearch.org is a great research tool.